Great post KML,
You
quoted a portion of this passage in Isaiah 28 and I think it bears
repeating along with more of the passage where God comes right out and
makes plain the point you
were making. He says that He gave His word in a scattered manner (here a
little and there a little) on purpose in order to make it impossible
for the natural man using intellect to be able to come up with the
correct meaning. He says that their error is through wine and strong
drink meaning as we know alcohol kills brain cells, which is another way
of saying they are just not smart enough to figure this out using
intellect but yet they think they can do just that and in so doing will
surly arrive at incorrect conclusions and doctrines. His stated
intention is that the proud might attempt to understand it but in so
doing that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared,
and taken. If that sounds like a mean thing to do, He explains right
along with that that He will teach knowledge to any who will do it His
way. He starts this chapter by pronouncing a woe to the prideful and
contrasts them with the humble who present themselves to
Him and are willing to be weaned from milk and taught directly by Him.
These kind, He very graciously will teach His truths to by showing them
where the lines upon lines and precepts upon precepts fit together and
it will not be the result of intense study but rather the result of time
spent with God and listening to His instruction. Paul picked up on this
idea when he spoke of wanting his followers to be weaned from milk and
able to take meat (solid food like a cow eats to produce the milk that
babies need) which comes directly from the Holy Spirit and not through a
human go between which is where milk teaching comes from.
Bottom
line is I appreciate the point you make that God's word is still with
us as He promised that it would be, preserved for all generations but
that men have been proudly approaching it and "wresting" it to their own
hurt.
"What say we let God speak for himself, Amen ?" I
agree!
Isaiah 28
1. Woe to the
crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a
fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are
overcome with wine!
2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong
one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of
mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4.
And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall
be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when
he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it
up.
5. In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a
crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his
people,
6. And for a spirit of judgment to him
that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7.
But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out
of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,
they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong
drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9.
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand
doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the
breasts.
10. For precept must be upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a
little:
11. For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and
this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13.
But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a
little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and
snared, and taken.